Monthly Archives: April 2015

The House beat back the Air Force efforts to tranfer money from the grunts best friend to a disappointing F-35 that isn’t even operational…

The House Armed Services Committee voted early Thursday morning to keep the A-10 attack jet flying another year, as the panel marked up its 2016 defense policy bill.

An amendment, proposed by Rep. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), would prohibit the Air Force from taking any moves to retire the plane, something it has been trying to do for several years under budget constraints.

The amendment passed by voice vote after emotional debate by members of the committee, particularly military veterans on the panel, who argued for and against keeping the plane, which is designed to support ground troops in battle.

McSally, a retired Air Force colonel, A-10 pilot and squadron commander, led the case for keeping the attack jet, arguing it had superior loitering capabilities and a powerful weapons load, even bringing in a real, but non-live, ammunition round.

Rep. Rich Nugent (R-Fla.) said one of his sons, who served in Afghanistan, said when the A-10s came, “the enemy scattered” — and that other aircraft did not scare them as much.

“Coming from the farm, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” said Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.). Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) added, “It is the all-purpose sledgehammer of the skies.”

Our new ranking of the GOP contenders features a number of changes. In our first tier, “The Leading Contenders,” Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida is now second and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin is third, a reversal of their previous positions. The second tier, “The Outsiders,” has been reduced to just Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky, with Cruz now ranked ahead of Paul.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich now leads the third tier, “The Governor Alternatives,” with former Texas Gov. Rick Perry ranked second. They both move ahead of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Rejoining our list is Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, who slots in at the tail end of that group. The new fourth tier, “Evangelical Favorites,” contains former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Dr. Ben Carson, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum; the trio previously made up latter part of the second tier. Lastly, our old fourth tier is now the fifth tier, “The Gadflies and Golden Oldies,” and its order is unchanged.

NYPD Police Commissioner William J. Bratton, under pressure from the City Council is trying to figure out how to switch certain low level criminal offense’s from being considered crimes, but NOT taking away New York City Police Officers abilities to request ID from people they stop…..

For Police Commissioner William J. Bratton, keeping crime low in New York City hinges on the power of officers to make arrests for low-level offenses. Not that they must actually do so.

Mr. Bratton, speaking to reporters on Thursday, said that he was exploring the possibility of officers’ giving warnings in lieu of arrests, or even criminal summonses, when confronting first-time offenders for minor violations of law.

His comments come against the backdrop of widespread debate and street protests in some areas over the policing of minority communities, and amid a fast-moving conversation in the city about altering some practices.

The debate in New York City represents a shift among police reform advocates, from a focus on unconstitutional police stops to an attack against misdemeanor arrests and criminal summonses, which they say disproportionately ensnare minority communities in the criminal justice system.

In recent days, the way the city handles the lowest-level offenses, such as riding a bike on the sidewalk, public urination and drinking in public, has been the subject of a back and forth between Mr. Bratton and the City Council, which has proposed civil penalties in place of the current criminal process.

“I am very intent on protecting the right of the officers to start the process, with the stop, with the identification,” Mr. Bratton said at the Police Academy after a speech on Thursday…..

…..Republican Gov. Gary Herbert of Utah put it this way: “I wanted to be able to say, ‘If you want the taxpayers to fund your health care, then you need to go out and be involved in a work program, no ifs, ands or buts.’ I’ve been accused by the Obama administration: ‘Well, you’re trying to turn this health care program into a work program.’ And I’ve said, ‘You’re right.’”

But the administration and its allies counter that Medicaid expansion is part of the Affordable Care Act, not the welfare system. Adding job requirements, time limits or other conditions subverts the health law’s goal of providing affordable and accessible care to the people who need it. It’s wrong, they say, to subsidize health insurance for middle-class people in the Obamacare exchanges while picking and choosing who among the poor deserves Medicaid assistance.

The administration “has proven its willingness to work with governors of both parties” to connect Medicaid expansion recipients to state-run employment programs on a voluntary basis, Obama’s Medicaid Director Vikki Wachino said in a statement to POLITICO. But she added, “Because Medicaid is a health coverage program, requiring employment may not be a condition of eligibility.”

That hasn’t stopped Republicans on Capitol Hill from considering ways to open the door to work rules.

Leading Off:•WV-03: Democrats finally lost this conservative southern West Virginia seat last year, with Republican Evan Jenkins unseating longtime Democratic incumbent Nick Rahall 55-45. Romney won this seat 65-33 and it’s hard to see Team Blue recapturing this ancestrally Democratic seat anytime soon, but the party is reaching out to one of the few politicians who might have a shot here. Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, who is termed-out next year, confirms that he’s been approached, and that he hasn’t made “any final decisions on anything yet.”

It’s rare for someone to go from the governor’s mansion to the House, but it’s not unheard of. Mike Castle of Delaware and Bill Janklow of South Dakota successfully ran for their state’s lone House seats as they were being termed-out. Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford also returned to Congress about two years after leaving Columbia, though few politicians are going to try emulating his career path. Still, it’s often hard enough to convince former or soon-to-be-former governors to run for the Senate, where they’re forced to go from being their state’s top dog to becoming just one member of a 100-person chamber: Becoming a freshman House member is an even less appealing prospect.

Still, if the DCCC can land Tomblin, he’d be a good get. Tomblin carried the 3rd 54-42 during his 2012 re-election campaign, quite a bit better than his 50-46 statewide win. Tomblin will be 65 on Election Day, so he’d have some time to amass seniority if he sticks around. There are still several Democratic legislators in coal country so the DCCC has some backup options if Tomblin says no. But it won’t be easy for anyone to beat the well-funded Jenkins, and there’s little doubt that Tomblin would be the best candidate they can get….

…

Senate:

•UT-Sen: Just days after former Romney aide Alex Dunn began talking about challenging Republican Sen. Mike Lee for renomination, Dunn has ruled out a campaign. Lee’s enemies in the GOP will probably continue to search for someone to face him, but it’s unclear who else might be interested. While the tea partying Lee may be vulnerable if a well-funded opponent jumps in, he’s been working hard to make nice with his former detractors, and there’s little sign that GOP primary voters are actually want to dump him.

Gubernatorial:

•KY-Gov: As the May 19 GOP primary draws near, it’s no surprise that the ads are really beginning to fly. Kentuckians for Growth, Opportunity and Prosperity has a new spot for state Agriculture Commissioner James Comer, where they tout him as the only candidate who has successfully stood up to Obama. While there’s no word of the size of the buy, the group has spent $620,000 in the last month.

Former Louisville Councilor Hal Heiner, who is the frontrunner according to some stale polling, also gets some air support. Citizens for a Sound Government goes after Comer, accusing him on voting to increase his own pension. The ad features a clip of Comer spending several seconds stammering when asked to explain his 2005 vote, before finally responding “that was a… clearly a bad vote.” We also have a copy of a commercial for tea partying businessman Matt Bevin that was briefly pulled from YouTube, but I can’t promise that it’s worth the wait…

Clinton: The more we learn about the Clinton Foundation the worst it looks for Hillary. With the release of Peter Schweizer’s new book “Clinton Cash” has come renewed interest into looking into the money machine that is the Clinton Foundation. The latest revelation is that the Clinton Foundation failed to disclose over 1,100 foreign donations that occurred while Hillary was Secretary of State. Since less than 10% of the Clinton Foundation budget goes to actual charity work (see here) it makes you wonder what they were actually doing with all these millions they raised from shady Russian billionaires and foreign governments.Perry: National Review’s Jim Geraghty profiles how 5 years in the US Air Force shaped the life of Rick Perry. Perry could be one of the few 2016 GOP Presidential candidate with any military experience.

Governor:

KY-Gov: The ad war in the KY GOP gubernatorial primary is heating up. Kentuckians for Growth, Opportunity and Prosperity (KGOP) is up on the air with a new TV ad backing state Agriculture Commissioner James Comer (R). Hal Haienr (R) has a new spot up featuring his wife and daughter and Matt Bevins (R) has a new ad that touts his credentials as the “real deal conservative”. You can see the Hainer and Bevins ads here.

NY-Gov 2018:Gov Andrew Cuomo (D) has now said that he has definitive plans to run for a third term in 2018.

Senate:

UT-Sen: Another potential Republican primary challenger to Sen Mike Lee (R) has declined to run. Alex Dunn (R), a Provo business executive, has decided against running for Senate. Dunn was being recruited to run by some deep-pocketed UT figures who are searching for a more establishment oriented primary opponent to take on Sen Mike Lee. Dunn however decided to pass on the uphill task of challenging the popular incumbent Senator.

MD-Sen: Roll Call takes a look at how the riots in Baltimore could change the dynamics of the nascent Maryland Senate race. The riots have thrusted potential candidate Rep Elijah Cummings (D) into the spotlight….

The Civil War era’s 14th Amendment, granting automatic citizenship to any baby born on American soil, is a proud achievement of the Party of Lincoln.

But now House Republicans are talking about abolishing birthright citizenship.

A House Judiciary subcommittee took up the question Wednesday afternoon, prompted by legislation sponsored by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) and 22 other lawmakers that, after nearly 150 years, would end automatic citizenship.

The 14th Amendment, King told the panel, “did not contemplate that anyone who would sneak into the United States and have a baby would have automatic citizenship conferred on them.” Added King, “I’d suggest it’s our job here in this Congress to decide who will be citizens, not someone in a foreign country that can sneak into the United States and have a baby and then go home with the birth certificate.”

It’s no small task to undo a principle, enshrined in the Constitution and upheld by the Supreme Court, that defines the United States as a nation of immigrants. It’s particularly audacious that House Republicans would undo a century and a half of precedent without amending the Constitution but merely by passing a law to reinterpret the 14th Amendment’s wording in a way that will stop the scourge of “anchor babies” and “birth tourism.”

Judiciary Committee Republicans brought in three experts to testify in support of this extraordinary maneuver (a lone Democratic witness was opposed), and they evidently had to search far and wide for people who would take this view, because they ended up with a bizarre witness: an octogenarian professor from the University of Texas named Lino Graglia…..

Yesterday there where media reports that information from the police investigation in the Baltimore would deseminated to the public as soon as Friday….

That is not gonna happen…

As those in law enforcement and the criminal justice system knows…

The law moves slowly….

There will be no decision on the Freddie Grey case anytime soon…

The question is?

How will the protestors in the street handle this….

Having weathered two all-night curfews with no major disturbances, Baltimore officials are now trying to manage growing expectations they will immediately decide whether to prosecute six police officers involved in the arrest of a black man who later died of injuries he apparently received while in custody.

In an effort to be transparent, authorities have told the community they plan to turn over the findings of a police investigation into Freddie Gray’s death to a state’s attorney by Friday. Gray’s death from a spinal injury a week after his April 12 arrest is what sparked riots Monday — the worst the city has seen since 1968.

Prosecutors will review the information and eventually decide how to move forward, authorities have said.

But protesters on the streets and high school students who met with Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake on Wednesday have said there are rumors circulating that some kind of ‘‘verdict’’ will be rendered as soon as Friday.

‘‘It became very clear … that people misunderstood,’’ Rawlings-Blake said….

While President Obama has made it clear that American troops in Afgahanstan are only ‘advisors’….

That is NOT what is going on on the ground according to a New York Times piece….

With Hamid Karzai gone form the head of Afghanistan ….American and Afghan military leaders have moved ahead with re-engage their efforts against the Taliban….

As in Iraq….

America is trying to not let gains made in the decade go down the drain….

….interviews with American and Western officials in Kabul and Washington offer a picture of a more aggressive range of military operations against the Taliban in recent months, as the insurgents have continued to make gains against struggling government forces.

Rather than ending the American war in Afghanistan, the military is using its wide latitude to instead transform it into a continuing campaign of airstrikes — mostly drone missions — and Special Operations raids that have in practice stretched or broken the parameters publicly described by the White House.

Western and military officials said that American and NATO forces conducted 52 airstrikes in March, months after the official end of the combat mission. Many of these air assaults, which totaled 128 in the first three months of this year, targeted low- to midlevel Taliban commanders in the most remote reaches of Afghanistan.

As early as January, when officials in Washington were hailing the end of the combat mission, about 40 American Special Operations troops were deployed to Kunar Province to advise Afghan forces that were engaged with the Taliban over a handful of villages along the border with Pakistan…..

One of the Port Authority inside guys for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is reportedly going to plead on the Bridge-gate Federal case….

With this , it appears that he will be working with the fed’s against others under investigation…

This is another worry for Chris Christie no matter what he might say to the media….

David Wildstein, a former ally of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, is set to plead guilty, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, suggesting he may be cooperating with prosecutors probing traffic jams he ordered near the George Washington Bridge.

Wildstein is scheduled to appear as early as Friday in federal court in Newark, where grand jurors heard testimony in secret for months about gridlock over four mornings in Fort Lee, New Jersey, according to the person, who requested anonymity because the matter isn’t public. The plea was originally scheduled for Thursday, the person said. The specific charges were unclear.

A plea by Wildstein, who was a top appointee at the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, would be the first conviction for U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman in an investigation of the September 2013 lane closures. The scandal has hurt Christie’s popularity as the Republican weighs a run for the White House and tests his tough-talking image with voters in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Lobbyists in Columbus warn their clients before meeting the governor not to take it personally if he berates them. A top Ohio Republican donor once publicly vowed not to give Kasich a penny after finding him to be “unpleasantly arrogant.” As a congressman, Kasich sometimes lashed out at constituents—one who called him a “redneck” in a 1985 letter got a reply recommending he “enroll in a remedial course on protocol”—and when Kasich was thrown out of a Grateful Dead concert for trying to join the band onstage, he allegedly threatened to use his clout to have the band banned from D.C. As I was writing this article, Kasich’s press secretary, Rob Nichols, helpfully emailed me the thesaurus entry for “prickly,” sensing that I would need it.

I spent several days with Kasich in Ohio in February, and during that time he told me, repeatedly, that he did not read The Atlantic—and his wife didn’t, either. He said that my job, writing about politics and politicians, was “really a dumb thing to do.” Later, he singled me out in a meeting of cabinet officials to upbraid me for what he considered a stupid question in one of our interviews. At a Kasich press conference I attended at a charter school in Cleveland, he interrupted several speakers, wandered off to rummage on a nearby teacher’s desk as he was being introduced, and gleefully insulted the Cleveland Browns, to a smattering of boos.

But while Kasich can be rude—and at times even genuinely nasty—he is also prone to spontaneous displays of empathy, frequently becoming emotional as he talks about the plight of people “in the shadows.”

A woman seen berating and hitting a black-clad teenager, later confirmed to be her son, has been hailed as “mom of the year” after her intervention on the streets of Baltimore was caught on video. As violence flared up across the city on Monday, the woman, who was identified as Toya Graham on Tuesday afternoon, was filmed telling her child to “take that f—— mask off.”

[I was knocked to the ground by Freddie Gray rioters, then helped to my feet]

Graham spoke to CBS News about the video, which initially went viral with little context. In the interview, the single mother of six tells the network that she intervened out of concern for her 16-year-old son’s safety.

“That’s my only son, and at the end of the day, I don’t want him to be a Freddie Gray,” Graham said. “But to stand up there and vandalize police officers, that’s not justice.”

And some of it actually is pretty close to what Hillary has had to deal with….

Carly Fiorina’s political future depends on whether she can defend her record as CEO of Hewlett-Packard.

The likely GOP presidential candidate is aiming to do just that in her new book Rising to the Challenge, set to be released May 5, a day after the expected launch of her 2016 campaign. Fiorina now claims the company’s decision to fire her in 2005, after a turbulent six-year tenure, was a result of a dysfunctional board of directors and not her leadership.

In an interview with The Hill, Fiorina said members of her own board leaked confidential information to the media to undermine her decisions, though she stopped short of alleging outright sexism. She was the first female CEO of a Fortune 20 company.

“Men understand other men’s need for respect, but they don’t always understand women’s need for respect,” Fiorina said. “The situation that transpired in the boardroom was all about certain board members wanting to protect their position when they felt threatened, because their behavior was against the code of conduct, and they knew that I as a leader would not tolerate that conduct.”

When asked again if she thought underlying sexism contributed to her firing, she said, “There’s no question that women in positions of authority are scrutinized differently, criticized differently and characterized different.”

…….“I’m more convinced than ever that our future in the 21st century depends on our ability to ensure that a child born in the hills of Appalachia or the Mississippi Delta or the Rio Grande valley grows up with the same shot at success that Charlotte will.”

Here Hillary was referring to her grand-daughter by Chelsea.

In the oligarchical nature of American politics this is a hollow offer.

Of the 43 Presidents of the United States (and it is 43 not 44, as Grover Cleveland served in two non-sequential administrations) fully 29 were related to each other by blood, marriage and adoption. And this is a feature that far from being essentially an eighteenth century phenomena is one which gets stronger and stronger today.

The Clintons were certainly “novus homen” when they appeared in the White House but they have most certainly bedded in well since. Chelsea married Mark Mezvinsky the son of Ed Mezvinsky a big Democrat suit and fixer, as well as being a one-time Representative from Iowa, and Marjorie Margolies-Mevinsky who was a representative from Pennsylvania.

Hillary Clinton’s running allows us to envisage a truly awesome fight in 2016 between Hillary and Jeb Bush, the Governor of Florida. Jeb Bush is the brother of one President, George W Bush and the son of another, President George Walker Bush. He is the grandson of Senator Prescott Bush. He is also descended through his mother from President Pearce….

Hillary Rodham Clinton isn’t just running against Republicans. She’s also running against parts of her husband’s legacy.

On issues large and small, the Democratic presidential contender is increasingly distancing herself from — or even opposing — key policies pushed by Bill Clinton while he was in the White House, from her recent skepticism on free-trade pacts to her full embrace of gay rights.

The starkest example yet came Wednesday, when Hillary Clinton delivered an impassioned address condemning the “era of incarceration” ushered in during the 1990s in the wake of her husband’s 1994 crime bill — though she never mentioned him or the legislation by name.

“We have allowed our criminal justice system to get out of balance,” Clinton told an audience at Columbia University in New York, making references to unrest in Baltimore and elsewhere following deaths at the hands of police. “And these recent tragedies should galvanize us to come together as a nation to find our balance again.”

The contrasts between some of Clinton’s positions and those of her husband from 20 years ago show the extent to which Democrats, and the country as a whole, have shifted to the left on a number of key issues. Indeed, Bill Clinton now says that some of his incarceration policies went too far and he regrets backing a federal law that defined marriage as being between a man and a woman….